All the crayfishes have a complex gastric armature. The seven anterior thoracic limbs are provided with podobranchiæ, but the first of these is always more or less completely reduced to an epipodite. More or fewer arthrobranchiæ always exist. Pleurobranchiæ may be present or absent.
In this tribe of Astacina there are two families, the Potamobiidæ and the Parastacidæ; and the definition of each of these families is formed by superadding to the {256} definition of the tribe the statement of the special peculiarities of the family.
Thus, the Potamobiidæ are those Astacina in which the podobranchiæ of the second, fourth, fifth, and sixth thoracic appendages are always provided with a plaited lamina, and that of the first is an epipodite devoid of branchial filaments. The first abdominal somite invariably bears appendages in the males, and usually in both sexes. In the males these appendages are styliform, and those of the second somite are always peculiarly modified. The appendages of the four following somites are relatively small. The telson is very generally divided by a transverse incomplete hinge. None of the branchial filaments are terminated by hooks; nor are any of the coxopoditic setæ, or the longer setæ of the podobranchiæ hooked, though hooked tubercles occur on the stem and on the laminæ of the latter. The coxopoditic setæ are always long and tortuous.
In the Parastacidæ, on the other hand, the podobranchiæ are devoid of more than a rudiment of a lamina, though the stem may be alate. The podobranchia of the first maxillipede has the form of an epipodite; but, in almost all cases, it bears a certain number of well developed branchial filaments. The first abdominal somite possesses no appendages in either sex: and the appendages of the four following somites are large. The telson is never divided by a transverse hinge. More or fewer of the branchial filaments of the {257} podobranchiæ are terminated by short hooked spines; and the coxopoditic setæ, as well as those which beset the stems of the podobranchiæ, have hooked apices.
The definitions of the genera would in like manner be given by adding the distinctive characters of each genus to the definitions of the family; and those of the species by adding its character to those of the genus. But at present it is unnecessary to pursue this topic further.
There are no other inhabitants of the fresh waters, or of the land, which could be mistaken for crayfishes; but certain marine animals, familiar to every one, are so strikingly similar to them, that one of these was formerly included in the same genus, Astacus; while another is very often known as the “Sea-crayfish.” These are the “Common Lobster,” the “Norway Lobster,” and the “Rock Lobster” or “Spiny Lobster.”
The common lobster (Homarus vulgaris, fig. [67]) presents the following distinctive characters. The last thoracic somite is firmly adherent to the rest; the exopodite of the antenna is so small as to appear like a mere movable scale; all the abdominal appendages are well developed in both sexes; and, in the males, the two anterior pairs are somewhat like those of the male Astacus, but less modified.
FIG. 67. Homarus vulgaris (1⁄3 nat. size).